So he finally clawed his way up to the number one spot?

Congrats to him!

Makes it that much easier to pay Ichiro's salary I guess....

That man loves games? Maybe... he probably loves money more though... I wish I was him... no, I just want his money :(

I watch anime, I know what rich japanese men do with their money. He's clearly going to build giant robots and have a 500 acre castle where 500 maids with giant breasts and skirts higher then their underwear attend to him like he's the hottest thing alive :( OH GOD I'M SO JEALOUS :(

@okenny :): But that's what I always wanted to do!
:.(

@room88: I've heard Yamauchi has never even been to a Mariners game before. He just bought the team because it seemed like a good business investment at the time.

i got a japanese question.

is his name pronounced hiroshi yama goochi or hiroshi yama uushii

sorry i should know the man but im having problems pronouncing his last name.

YAMAUCHI IS THE MAN!
Seriously, look at him. That guy is pure malevolent business. I love it.

@okenny :): Actually, I remember seeing something that said Yamauchi had never played a game in his life.

@Dakobah: meant first name, gah

@Dakobah:

Where are you getting the G from?

His name is pronounced "Yah-Mah-OO-Chi He-Row-She".

@Dakobah:

Yamauchi is his last name. They gave it in the Romanized way (Given name first, Family name last).

Hmm, I'd figure the mob boss of Japans largest mafia would be the richest; yamaguchigumi.

@mjpm: that was my seconed part of my question, i just wanted to know if there was a silent Goo sound in there.
i know now anyway, carry on, nothing to see here.

I read the Headline at first glance as:

"Japan's Oldest Man Is...Yes, Hiroshi Yamauchi."

possessive "its" needs no apostrophe!

i mention this only because you did it twice in one sentence :(

"he is expected to spend at least some of his winnings on a new leather face."

Aww, Luke, is your jealousy starting to show?

@mjpm:
lol, it sure as hell aint pronounced that way.

Id try to explain how its pronounced, but
1. Im familiar with japanese so its hard to explain..just seems natural as it is.
2. Im a swede, so our romanji is different from yours (i take it your native americans?)

But anyway..Yama-uchi

You can google/wiki　やまうち and learn how to pronounce it I suppose. gl

I wonder how much this will affect the way empressaries/investors see games...perhaps gaming will become the new gold mine in Japan after this...

@Amun-Ra: Hey, come on. Do a google image search on his chops and tell me the dude doesn't have a leather face.

Doesn't he have face training for the DS?

Luke, why no mentioning of Kagemasa Kozuki, who owns Konami? He's also in the list and that's surely also impressive AND game-related

Oh, and of course: "Keiko Erikawa, chairman emeritus of videogame developer Koei. Erikawa, the list's only self-made female, shares a $720 million fortune with her husband, who co-founded the company with her."

Wasn't all the Wii stuff done with Iwata at the reigns? I wonder if he's ever a teensy bit jealous of his successor.. but then again he's the richest dude in Japan.. why should he care?

So, last week Nintendo say "No, we will not do a price cut" and this week the old president is declared the nation's richest man.

I feel all warm and cosy inside.

he always gives me an emperor palpatine vibe.

You'll forgive me for my lack of respect, but taking in account his quotes about core games and in particular RPGs, he's not only Japan's richest man, but also Japan's biggest idiot.

im sorry Abriael, as much as i dislike Hiroshi Yamauchi, Japan's biggest idiot goes to Ken Kutargi, with his 4D vision :3, though respects to them both at the same time for contributing to the gaming world

Kutaragi contributed to the gaming world, Yamauchi contributed to making the gaming world laugh about his idiotic vision of gaming and to insult dedicated gamers with his (he thinks) witty remarks.

"I have been saying this for some time, but customers are not interested in grand games with higher-quality graphics and sound and epic stories. Only people who do not know the videogame business would advocate the release of next-generation machines when people are not interested in cutting-edge technologies."

"[People who play RPGs are] depressed gamers who like to sit alone in their dark rooms and play slow games."

I can't think of any other word than "idiotic".

@Abriael: Source link? Did he really say those things word for word or are you paraphrasing?

My most fond memory for Yamauchi was him holding the most irrational grudge against Squaresoft after they bailed on Nintendo with FF7. I don't have a link but I believe it was IGN that wrote an article that featured the amount of contempt Yamauchi had.

@UmeShoryu:
[en.wikiquote.org]

@Abriael:In truth..Yamauchi's remarks are pretty much truthful in his mind in many ways. Don't call him a idiot, do some leg work.

"[People who play RPGs are] depressed gamers who like to sit alone in their dark rooms and play slow games."

In Japan, these are typically the much abused Otaku, in the US, they are called nerds. While it's stereotying of the highest order, it does not mean it does not happen because for years and years it does and still does.

"I have been saying this for some time, but customers are not interested in grand games with higher-quality graphics and sound and epic stories. Only people who do not know the videogame business would advocate the release of next-generation machines when people are not interested in cutting-edge technologies."

Now that statement I will say is..misunderstood and partly due to his limited world view at the time, but again, he also holds a strong point. Nintendo has always and I mean always from the time they first got into the biz with their light-gun games in the 70's, never used cutting-edge techologies in their systems, they use off-the-shelf tech that has been around at least five years or more. It's why every single Nintendo system ever released has always turned a profit.

You'd have to be rolling in money to look THAT good. :o

@okenny :):The only video game Yamauchi has ever attempted to play was Bullet-Proof Software's "Go" and he got annoyed and gave up within a half hour and never came back to it. He does play games though..again, he plays Go and last time I heard, was ranked 7th dan.

@Bumpmap:You don't cut prices when your the market leader in home and portable formats. Let it also be known that Yamauchi does not have a shitload of money in the bank, most of his riches are from Nintendo stock, of which he owns the most of, along with other Nintendo and former Nintendo employees. (Miyamoto, Yoko Yamauchi/Arakawa, Minoru Arakawa, Howard Lincoln, etc)

@doobymoo:Iwata was hand-picked by Yamauchi and just because Yamauchi is retired this does not mean that Iwata does not consult with him.

@xbandaidx:Forbes does not take into account mob bosses/etc. Legit people only.

He's pwned the rest of Japan.

Awesome.

This guy is my idol.

@Abriael: true.
Buthe still pwns you. in fact he pwns us all.

So unless you got money piercing bullets, you'll never get past his billion yen insultproof armour, no point telling us.

it just makes us more depressed.

*dreams of his own personal sexy combat maids*

Ah, haven't seen a good Yamauchi story in a while, too bad it's not accompanied by one of his wacky insane quotes, the only thing I think I really miss about his former rule over Nintendo.

@Dakobah: Silent Goo sound... priceless!

@Foxstar Sixtail: Too much information time: The problem with stereotypes is they're limited in scope. I'm a classic otaku/nerd. I do enjoy RPGs like other people enjoy reading books, and I have depression, I enjoy time alone, live with my family, yadda yadda. But I also have two very successful career paths, a sweet GF that likes games, meet lots of beautiful ladies through my work, food on my plate, and generally don't have much to complain about. Life is life, just do it and enjoy it. There's too much tragedy in the world every day to wallow and argue all the time about what you or other people should be doing with your limited time here.

@Foxstar Sixtail:
Too bad Otaku and nerds are a VAST minority between the ones that play RPGs and JRPGs ion particular, and the most solid part of the gaming customer base (not the ones that now are buying the wii and that will probably forget about it as soon as the trend is gone, and trends go quite fast) are quite different from what he described.

So my statement stands, the old fart isn't exactly sane.

@doobymoo: Iwata has a ways to go before he matches the combined glory of NES, SNES, Gameboy, Virtual Boy, Power Glove, Game & Watch, Ultra Hand, Hanafuda, Love Hotels, and "Now you're playing with power!".

The man gave birth to Miyamoto and Gunpei Yokoi at the same time! Without a woman.

He is the Japanese Virgin Mary.

@Abriael:Your point is overshadowed by the "It's a fad" talking point.

I love those dark-black eyebrows.

If it was any other rich old man we'd be griping, but in this case he gets congrats?